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"There is currently little evidence to suggest that their
cyber-attack capability extends beyond common website
defacement," it said in its annual cybercrime threat assessment
in a year marked by Islamic State violence in Europe.
But the internet's criminal shadow the Darknet had potential to
be exploited by militants taking advantage of computer experts
offering "crime as a service", Europol added: "The availability
of cybercrime tools and services, and illicit commodities
(including firearms) on the Darknet, provide ample opportunities
for this situation to change."
Overall, the report found, existing trends in cybercrime
continued to grow, with some of the European Union's member
states reporting more cyber crimes than the traditional variety.
"Europol is concerned about how an expanding cybercriminal
community has been able to further exploit our increasing
dependence on technology and the internet," its director, Rob
Wainwright, said in a statement. "We have also seen a marked
shift in cyber-facilitated activities relating to trafficking in
human beings, terrorism and other threats."
"Ransomware" - programs which break into databases and demand
payment for unlocking codes via virtual currencies such as
Bitcoin - continued to expand as a problem, as did highly
targeted "phishing" attacks to extract security data from senior
figures - "CEO fraud" - and video streaming of child abuse.
Attacks on bank cash-machine networks were also increasing, the
report found, as were frauds exploiting new contactless payment
card transactions, while traditional scams involving the
physical presence of a card had been successfully reduced.
(Reporting by Alastair Macdonald in Brussels; Editing by
Jonathan Oatis)
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